Mexico’s telecommunication reform illustrates how better policies can lead to better lives. Since 2013, this unprecedented structural reform has allowed the Mexican authorities to introduce important changes to modernise the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors, challenging a highly concentrated status quo and moving into a more competitive future. The results have been remarkable and demonstrate what can be achieved with evidence-based policy making.

In 2012, the OECD published an OECD Review of Telecommunication Policy and Regulation in Mexico as a contribution to what would become a broad constitutional, legal and regulatory reform in the telecommunication sector in Mexico. In 2016, Mexico, through the Mexican Ministry of Transport and Communications (Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, SCT) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT), invited the OECD to conduct an implementation review. The objectives of this review are threefold: 1) to assess the implementation of the reform against the 2012 OECD recommendations; 2) to evaluate the market developments in telecommunication and broadcasting after the reform; and 3) to provide a set of recommendations to build on the momentum.

The OECD Telecommunication and Broadcasting Review of Mexico 2017 evaluates the implementation of the recommendations since the OECD 2012 review, assesses market developments in the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors since then, and provides recommendations for the future.

This chapter provides the context of the OECD Telecommunication and Broadcasting Review of Mexico 2017, by recalling the outcomes of the 2012 OECD review, assessing the measures implemented since the 2013 reform, and providing recommendations for the continued improvement of telecommunication and broadcasting in Mexico.

This chapter reviews changes in the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors in Mexico as well as market developments, particularly since the 2013 reform. It reviews market performance, market participation and the competitive environment in both the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors and concludes with developments in convergence.

This chapter examines the main aspects of the constitutional and legal provisions by which the telecommunication and broadcasting reform was implemented in Mexico. It further discusses changes to the institutional framework and with respect to regulatory, governmental and judicial institutions.

This chapter examines the design of regulation and policies of the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors in Mexico, most of which have been introduced since the 2013 reform, based on the changes to the legal framework discussed in Chapter 3. It covers issues such as wholesale and retail regulation, digital inclusion strategies, competition aspects and enforcement as well as consumer protection and empowerment. It also reviews the second round of asymmetric measures imposed on the preponderant agents announced by the Federal Telecommunications Institute (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones, IFT) in March 2017.